They All Contain Coffins, Or Receptacles
For The Dead; In The Smaller Chambers There Is A Coffin In Each Of The
Three Sides:
The larger contain four or six coffins, two opposite the
entrance, and one on each side, or two on each of the three sides:
The
coffins in general are very rudely formed. Some of the natural caverns
contain also artificial receptacles for the dead, similar to those
already described; I have seen many of these caverns in different parts
of Syria. The south side of the village being less rocky, there are
neither caves nor coffins on that side. On the east side I counted
twenty-one coffins, and five sepulchral caves; of the former, fourteen
are within a very small space; the greater part of them are single, but
in same places they have been formed in pairs, upon the same level, and
almost touching each other.
Crossing to the N. side of the valley of Kefr Lata, I met with a long
wall built with large blocks of stone; to the north of it is an oblong
square, thirty-seven paces in length, and twenty-seven in breadth, cut
out of the rock; in its walls are several niches. In the middle of it is
a large coffin, with the remains of a wall which had enclosed it. To the
E. of this is a similar square, but of smaller dimensions. I counted in
this neighbourhood twenty coffins and four sepulchral caves, besides
several open niches very neatly wrought in the side of the mountain,
containing recesses for the dead.
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